Prom '98: Grecian Nights

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I took this image and made it into a coloring page. Everything was done by hand via Crayola Colored Pencils on February 24th 2014.

Chapter I

Date Anxiety

June 2nd 2013

It's that time of year when prom and the end of school is in the air, or for some prom is already over, including school.  For many prom is a wonderful time.  A time to remember the previous four years with a nice celebration with a girlfriend, friend, or even a group of friends.  For some, prom can be awkward, disastrous, or something they choose not to attend.  Luckily, my prom was wonderful.  If I didn't have a date, I would've went stag.  I worked too hard in school to not go to prom.  I recall a few girls that didn't have dates at my prom, so if you're reading this and don't have a date.  GO!  You never know who you might meet.

Even when I did or didn't have a date, I never missed a middle school or high school dance.  I sure wasn't going to miss the most important one of them all.  Prom.  I started thinking about my prom back in March 1998.  I was a 19 year old senior at Lakeland High School in White Lake, MI and our prom was going to be held at Bakers of Milford in Milford, MI.  I was glad.  I didn't want to drive to Troy or some place that was an hour or so away.

I hadn't had a girlfriend since May 1997, my junior year, so I was single.  I started thinking at the early part of April about who I was going to ask.  All my female friends had dates, at least that I recall.  I wanted to take someone that I knew.  Someone that wouldn't screw me over. Someone that wouldn't spend the whole night flirting with other people.  Someone who would treat me the way I treated them.  I know, that was asking a lot for a 19 year old, but if you knew my past, you'd see my reasoning.  I wanted to take someone who I would have a good time with, and someone who I cared about, it be a friend or someone more.  As you can tell, I'm pretty old school when it comes to dating.  So, who would I ask?

If you must know, I hate group dates.  Ever since my high school days I've hated them, and luckily, I haven't went on any.  My anxiety is a tad bit higher.  It all stems back to my freshman homecoming, when my best friend of 6 years kissed my date, basically right in front of my eyes.  My friend Brad had brought his date (Melissa), and I had brought mine (Trisha) to the dance.  Even though Trisha and I were just friends (same with Brad and Melissa), he asked if he could slow dance with Trisha.  Which, I didn't have a problem with.  I slow danced with Melissa as well. Toward the end of the night Trisha wasn't feeling good (tired) so Melissa and I went to get a drink.  We both talked about how much fun we were having, and Melissa knew that Brad liked her, and he really did.  I was happy for Brad, and I remember that I spent the weekend prior to homecoming at his house showing him how to fast dance, as this was his first dance that he attended, if I recall correctly.

So we returned to the dance floor, which our homecoming was held in the Kiva at our high school.  Little did Melissa and I know, but Brad and Trisha were slow dancing again.  Very close this time.  Melissa and I kind of felt awkward about the situation, so we started slow dancing as well.  Seconds later, Melissa raised her voice and said.

"Oh my gosh, they're kissing.  CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT?"

I looked over and couldn't believe my eyes.

Melissa quickly grabbed my hand and stormed out of the room.  I knew she was hurt.  Who wouldn't be?  Yes, Trisha and I were just friends, but it's the fact that she kissed someone else, and the fact that my friend let it happen.  A date is a date, if she liked my best friend, fine.  Just don't go screwing up the night.  Get with my best friend on a later date.  So my anxiety of someone else dancing with my date or hanging around my date started on that night.

That pretty much ruined our friendship and we didn't start talking again until my junior year in high school and that was just a 'hi' in the hallway and that was it.  Things were never the same between us, even during my senior year when we had a class together.

So whatever happened to Melissa?  Well, her and I got to know each other and became boyfriend and girlfriend about a month after this incident occurred.  We were together for nearly 8 months.

Looking back, would I change anything?  No, but I would change the fact that Brad and I didn't talk for 2 years.  I wish we would have made up sooner.  We actually never truly made up until around 2000 when he called me and apologized for the whole incident.  Life has a way of playing itself out, it just played itself out way too long.

CONTINUE. . . 

'If Ever You're In My Arms Again'

By Peabo Bryson

Year: 1984 

One of my top 10 favorite slow songs